Johnny Sims, the Suspect Who Killed Two Cops, Had Long Record, Nasty Tats

When Roger Castillo and Amanda Haworth, two veteran officers on the Miami-Dade Police Department's Warrants Bureau, approached a dilapidated duplex on NW 6th Court yesterday, they knew their target was a seriously bad dude. They knew he'd recently served time for robbery and selling coke, and that he was suspected of murdering a man just a month after getting out of jail. The cops wore full body armor as they entered the house.

But Johnny Sims got the drop on them anyway. The 23-year-old lept out and killed both officers before a third cop shot him dead in the doorway. This morning a more complete portrait of Sims is emerging -- and it looks an awful lot like an unreformed killer with a raft of bad tattoos.

Juvenile charges don't show up on the public rap sheet, but police officials tell the Heraldthat Sims was booked almost a dozen times before he turned 18, starting with a larceny arrest when he was just 14.

His first adult arrest happened in September 2005, records show, when he was 19. He was charged with six felony counts of selling and possessing cocaine and pot. Prosecutors didn't act on those charges, but he was back in custody just three months later, charged with grand theft auto and armed robbery.

​He was eventually convicted on the grand theft charge, and spent two years in state prison. He got out in February 2009, but landed back in criminal court a year and a half later, charged in June 2010 with robbery with a deadly weapon.

He earned a year in prison plus probation but got out after just a month, last September, because of time served. A few weeks later, police say, he shot and killed Cornelious Larry, a 27-year-old in Overtown who'd yelled at his sister.

Sims also had plenty of inkwork to celebrate his profession: "Savage," "10-20 Life" and a gun in flames, the Herald says.

Tim Elfrink is an award-winning investigative reporter, the managing editor of the Miami New Times and the co-author of "Blood Sport: Alex Rodriguez and the Quest to End Baseball's Steroid Era." Since 2008, he's written in-depth pieces on police corruption, fatal shootings and social justice issues across South Florida. He's won the George Polk Award and has been a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.